This thing about "small market" means less accountability it wrong. First of all, the accountability that matters is the accountability "in the room", not in the sport columns of a daily news paper. I think we now have in place a group of guys who know what that means and how to communicate it to a new guy.
Second, as someone who was raised in Philadelphia, has all of his family still living there and visits there at least 4-5 times a year, there is a definite appeal to living in a place like Columbus where the level of sanity is high and the level of uncontrolled, crazy emotionalism (NY, Philly, Boston) is restrained. A city like Columbus has tremendous appeal to people who just want to have a good quality of life. Particularly someone who is making $6 million a year and wants to be able to go out to dinner with his wife without worrying about whether it will appear in the newspapers. The quality of life here, the lack of two hours commutes each way from the arena all add up.
During the open house I was talking to one of the new Jacket employees who had just moved here from DC. She told me that Jason Chimera practically twisted her arm to come here. She says Chimera told her flat out that Columbus was the best place he ever played and that she would love it once she got here.
This city does have something special to offer to FA's.
